Chương 512: B8—Chapter 19: All-You-Can-Forage Buffet

We left the inn with all the obligatory fanfare to make it seem like we were leaving the city, headed to the main road, hid behind a hill, turned invisible, and engaged Stealth. From there, we flew to the forest and looked for an area without too many lumberjacks. The city was even bigger than I'd initially thought.

I investigated about thirty kilometers of its length and still didn't reach the end, but for some reason, I'd been under the impression that it stopped somewhere along the forest, forming half or maybe two-thirds of a circle around it. It made perfect sense in my mind. I was wrong. We flew around the entire forest—a trip that took over four hours—and discovered the city stretched all the way around it. I had to revise my original estimate.

This wasn't a city of a few hundred thousand people, but of several millions. We didn't find an area that was completely devoid of people, but since they weren't standing shoulder to shoulder, we could slip in almost anywhere. Back near where we'd first started, Mahya sent telepathically,"Let's just go in." Since the trees were very bushy, with low branches and thick foliage, flying was pretty much impossible.

Rue and I could've managed in those conditions, but Mahya and Al needed more room to maneuver on their swords, so we had to land and continue on foot. Past the first few trees, it still looked like a normal forest—trees, some underbrush mostly made up of ferns, birds, and insects. The usual. The deeper we went, the stranger it became. It started with mushrooms, which in themselves weren't strange or unexpected in a forest. But these didn't grow on the ground. They grew on the trees.

And it wasn't just a few scattered caps here and there. Some trunks looked like a full-blown mushroom farm, with variety. On the same tree, small white mushrooms resembling champignons, only with thinner, wider caps, grew beside brown ones with pointy tops. Deep yellow mushrooms dotted with black spots clung to the bark. Clusters of green mushrooms shaped like enoki sprouted from knots in the wood. Between them, the trunk was covered in tiny, deep brown mushrooms that looked like buttons glued onto the tree.

Higher up, the same varieties grew larger and larger, some of them reaching the size of dinner plates. We came across quite a few groups harvesting those mushrooms, mostly the ones growing higher up the trunks, which they pulled down with Telekinesis. It took a few encounters to spot the pattern, but by the fourth or fifth group, the difference became clear. Some foragers focused on the white caps and the enoki-like clusters. Others went straight for the brown, pointy ones and the deep yellow mushrooms.

No one touched the small, button-like growths. When I pointed it out to the others, Al replied telepathically,"Naturally. The brown and yellow varieties are potion ingredients. Once we are at a sufficient distance, I intend to collect some for myself."

"You think the others are edible?" I asked him.

"They are." As we went deeper, we encountered fewer and fewer foraging groups, and eventually we stopped to gather mushrooms ourselves. Al more or less stripped over fifty trees of every potion-related variety. I gathered some of the edible ones, but without the same enthusiasm. Despite giving quite a lot of food to the orphanage, I still had some giant mushrooms from Ashara, which were delicious, and saw no point in drowning in mushrooms.

About fifty meters farther in, we came across foraging groups again, but these were different. The earlier groups had usually been five to ten people, mostly women, with a man or two carrying an axe and scanning the surroundings, clearly acting as guards. The guards never foraged. They only watched. The new groups were larger, at least twenty people, mostly men, and all of them carried weapons. Half collected while the other half stood guard, and then they switched. And that was the next oddity.

They weren't collecting mushrooms. By this point, the mushroom-covered trees had thinned out. Some still carried clusters, but many were wrapped in vines instead. Those vines came in two varieties. One type climbed up the trunks and bore orange vegetables that resembled yams, only smaller, hanging from the stems, or bulbous green ones the foragers carefully harvested. The other type of vines dangled from the trees and spread across the ground.

The foragers yanked those out of the ground, gathered the brown root vegetables attached to them, and then laid the vines back down with surprising care. Deeper still, the trees carried yet another kind of vine, this time heavy with fruit. You couldn't mistake the sweet scent in the air. These were fruits. Some looked like oversized, deep-purple grapes. Others resembled an elongated apple I'd already tasted in juice and knew was incredible.

And everywhere, different vines produced a wild assortment of berries in orange, red, blue, green, purple, and yellow.

"This forest is an all-you-can-forage buffet," I sent to the group.

"No meat," Rue sent back, sounding deeply offended. I chuckled. A short while later, we found the first reason for the guards. A small cluster of the root monsters we'd killed a few days ago huddled around a tree, completely unaware of us. They were smaller than the ones we'd fought before. The ones that had come out of the forest had been about a meter in diameter. These were much smaller, the largest reaching maybe thirty centimeters. Al cast his freezing spell and more or less locked them in place.

"Next time, give us a warning," Mahya griped. The frozen root monsters flew apart a second later under her invisible blade. It took us almost the rest of the day to reach the first barrier, which turned out to be impossible to miss once we saw it. We could've made better time, but we stopped often along the way. Al gathered mushrooms near the outskirts, then shifted to a wide variety of herbs the deeper we went. Even the herbs grew in strange, unnatural patterns. They didn't spread randomly across the forest floor.

Instead, they either sprouted from the vines hanging off the trees or formed tight rings around the trunks at their base, as if placed there on purpose. The circles were almost too precise to be accidental. Deeper still, we found alchemical minerals that seemed to "grow" the same way. They clustered in bands around the trees, embedded partly in the bark and partly pushing up from the soil. Some resembled small, translucent crystals that caught the light in faint, shifting colors.

Others looked like dark, porous ore, as though the tree secreted stone instead of sap. It didn't feel entirely natural, but in a magical forest, natural clearly meant something different. Of course, I collected everything that looked even remotely edible, and for the first time, seriously regretted not using Identify more often. I kept asking Mahya and Al whether the things I wanted to gather were actually safe to eat, since my skill only gave me names. Normally, Appraisal helped.

If something was edible, it usually had a clear value attached to it, and that was enough to clue me in. But here, that logic fell apart. Everything Al collected also had a value through Appraisal, and some of it was impressively high, yet it was very obviously inedible. Potion ingredients. Minerals. Things that would probably dissolve your insides if you tried to snack on them. So I had to rely on their Identify, which was more advanced than mine and actually provided useful details instead of just a label.

To compensate for my own shortcomings, I started identifying absolutely everything we came across. It was still mostly useless. Learning that a yellow berry was called Veltarin, which sounded more like a prescription drug than food, or that the oversized grapes were Qeshali, or that a white root vegetable went by the name Krelmash, didn't actually help me decide whether to eat it. Still, I pushed through. If nothing else, it confirmed one thing: at low levels, the skill was pretty much useless.

But one day, when it leveled high enough, it might finally justify its existence and the hopes I had fot it. We also ran into more and more monsters the deeper we went, and not just the root tangles. Those were the most common, and I even identified them, learning they were called Thaekori. Again, totally useless information. But there were other types as well. Strange green creatures that looked like round patches of moss rolled along the ground and released a vomit-inducing gas when attacked.

Six-legged things that seemed made of twisted branches, complete with real leaves sprouting from them, but topped with oversized heads lined with rows of sharp wooden teeth. Small brown wooden creatures that resembled rodents dropped from the treetops onto your head and had a paralytic stinger at their butts like bees. And then there was a wide variety of monster insects, some of them large enough to pass for birds. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere.

Support the author by seeking out the original. Thankfully, they all had awful mana sense. As long as we simply passed through, they didn't even realize we were there. The moment we stopped to collect something, though, that changed. Very quickly, we adopted the same formation as the foragers. Either Al or I gathered whatever caught our attention, while the others stood guard. Rue was pretty much useless in the forest and deeply unhappy about it.

Wind Blades only scratched the monsters, and Blazing Orb wasn't an option because of the fire hazard. His bites made little difference against most of them, while the rest stung his tongue when he tried, which made him abandon the idea of close combat pretty fast. He settled into the role of lookout instead, sulking about it the entire time. The only monsters he was actually effective against were the vomit-inducing moss balls.

He was so pleased with himself that he wouldn't let us kill one before he'd had a chance to cut it up with Wind Blades and blow the gas away with a powerful gust of breath. Unfortunately for him, they weren't all that common, so most of the time he just sulked. We passed quite a few foraging groups, gathering either food or alchemical ingredients, and once we even had to stop in the middle of collecting some mineral Al was ecstatic about because a group was heading our way.

Not that we couldn't have dealt with them if they'd turned hostile or anything, but since we planned to sneak past the first barrier and technically break the law, it was better if no one knew we were there. Finally, late in the evening, we reached the aforementioned barrier. For some reason, when Mahya had mentioned it, I'd imagined something like a border checkpoint with guards. It wasn't. It was a natural barrier. Or maybe an unnatural one, depending on how you looked at it.

About five kilometers into the forest, a dense net of vines connected the trees in a continuous ring, sealing off everything beyond. The growth was so thick I couldn't see a thing on the other side, and the near pitch-dark didn't help. We circled the area first and made sure all the foragers had returned to the city, leaving us alone. Once we were satisfied, we all became visible. Mahya and I cast Light Balls to get a better look.

The added light helped on our side, but beyond the wall of vines, it was still impossible to see anything. We moved closer, trying to peer through a narrow gap. The vines reacted instantly. The moment we came within reach, they lashed out like whips. We had to retreat fast. Mahya jumped back unscathed, but I wasn't quick enough and took three painful strikes across my side.

"I'm not sure I want to open the house on this side of the barrier." I kept my voice low and glanced back toward the dark forest behind us.

"It'll take the foragers a while to get here tomorrow, but I don't want to risk it." Mahya crossed her arms, studying the wall of vines.

"We definitely need to open it and get to the other side. Fly up and see how high it goes. Maybe we can fly over it." I looked up at the tangled canopy, then back at her.

"You won't have enough room to maneuver with the swords." Al regarded the barrier.

"That is correct." He inclined his head slightly.

"However, we may jump and store the swords midair. Provided, of course, that we can pass above the barrier." Unfortunately, the vines didn't just connect the trunks. They linked the branches as well. Worse, some branches were tangled with their neighbors, weaving everything together into an even more impermeable wall. Mahya made a face.

"We'll just have to cut the vines." She jumped forward and swung. The moment her blade bit into the first vine, the whole wall reacted. Vines snapped toward her like whips. She jumped sideways, then back, boots barely touching the ground before another lash came for her ribs. She cut between jumps, quick, precise strikes meant to keep her flanks clear. Two vines fell. Three more replaced them. More tendrils joined the attack, writhing and snapping from above and from the sides.

Al raised a hand and cast Freeze, and for a heartbeat, the nearest vines stiffened. It barely mattered. There were too many. Even slowed, they came at her in a flurry of whipping strikes. The two she'd severed thickened and knit themselves back together within minutes, as if nothing had happened. Mahya twisted away from one last lash and jumped back to our side, sweating and muttering curses under her breath.

"Do you still have the potions we used in the nature dungeon in Tatob?" I asked Al.

"I believe I have a small amount left. However, you will need to locate it. It is stored in my laboratory inside your house." I focused and reached for it through the connection to the house, trying to pinpoint the right vial. No luck. I could sense every bottle Al had in his lab, rows and rows of them, but my understanding wasn't refined enough to tell them apart. As far as I could tell, they were potions, other potions, more bottles with different potions, and some other potions. Completely useless distinctions.

With a sigh, I opened the house in its smaller configuration and gestured toward the entrance.

"You'd better get it." He came back out with a completely different bottle from the ones I'd sensed. It was larger than the others and had a sprayer mounted on top. Al cast Invisibility and Stealth, and a moment later, the vines reacted, lashing out at something I couldn't see. I couldn't properly track his progress, even though I could still sense him moving. He shifted right, then left, working his way along the barrier. Wherever he passed, patches of vine began to rot.

Dark stains spread along the green, leaves shriveled, and sections sloughed off, dropping to the ground in damp clumps. It wasn't enough. The rotted gaps didn't stay open. New growth pushed through almost immediately, fresh vines twisting into place where the old ones had fallen. Al reappeared, sweating and holding an empty bottle. Basically, a bust.

"We have to use fire. No other choice," Mahya said.

"Yeah." I let out a slow breath.

"I just hope it won't turn into a forest fire." She raised an eyebrow.

"I thought your control improved."

"It did. I've just always had problems with fire." I straightened my shoulders and cast three Blazing Orbs in quick succession at the barrier. Then I pushed mana down my fire channels and connected to the flames. The nature mana in the air resisted. The fire flickered, weakened, and tried to die. I had to push harder, almost bully it into staying alive. It wasn't direct communication, but there was still a sense of presence. Enough to feel that she didn't like that I was forcing her and thought I was a jerk.

I ignored that and forced more mana into the flames, feeding them through control over the element and my mana. The vines blackened, curled, and split apart. It was slow. Nature mana pressed back stubbornly, trying to smother the fire at every turn. But inch by inch, I widened the opening, forcing it taller and broader.

"Once the gap's big enough, rush through," I said through clenched teeth.

"I can hold the fire long enough to keep it from closing, but not long enough to stop the whips." Another ten minutes of steady pressure and the opening was finally wide enough. Mahya and Al darted through at once. Rue hesitated at the edge, ears back.

"Don't worry," I forced out.

"The fire won't touch you. Just hurry. It's slipping." He bolted through. I followed right behind him, then let go of the connection. The flames collapsed almost instantly. Less than five minutes later, there was no sign of what I'd done. Just a faint thread of smoke in the air and a pounding headache behind my eyes. The barrier looked whole again. Mahya and Al were already engaged with the root creatures, the Thaekori, when I joined in.

On this side of the barrier, they were bigger, nearly a meter and a half across, their bodies made of thicker, denser roots and more skittering legs. Mahya shifted tactics almost immediately. Instead of standing her ground like before, she went mobile. She leapt from one to the next as if skipping across cobblestones, boots barely touching a writhing mass before she launched again. Each landing came with one or two sharp chops, then she was gone, already airborne toward the next target. It worked.

The Thaekori fixated on her. Roots lashed upward, stabbing and whipping in her wake, trying to catch her mid-jump. That pulled most of their attention away from Al and me. With fewer lashes snapping in our direction, we were able to strike more cleanly, cutting deeper into their cores and hacking through the thick root bundles. They still fought back. Thick tendrils whipped toward us, stabbing low and high. Without the single-minded focus they'd had before, the attacks lost some force, but not nearly enough.

My armor handled the stabs well enough, but I still felt every lash that slipped through. To counter it, I cast Mana Shield, which turned out to be a mistake. Between the constant whipping and the stabbing roots, the shield lasted less than two minutes. When it shattered, the backlash hit me on top of everything else. I didn't cast it again. There were only seven of them, but it still took time to bring them down.

They were far tougher than the ones that had come out in the wave, and each one had to be cut apart piece by stubborn piece before it finally went still. Once I turned them into crystals, I pulled out the core to open the house, but Mahya caught my arm before I could activate it.

"Let's move away from here. In case someone comes to investigate the smoke."

"Do so quickly," Al said.

"I am concerned the Light Balls may attract additional monsters." Easier said than done. On this side of the barrier, thick underbrush choked the forest floor, nothing like the previous ring. It didn't make any sense. The canopy overhead was so dense it should have blocked most of the sunlight. There shouldn't have been enough light for this kind of growth. I kept that to myself, since I already knew what they'd say.

"It's magic."

"Stop looking for logic in magical worlds." Or something along those lines. We hacked our way through the brush, three more Thaekori tried to block our path, and we had to cut them down before pushing on. I finally opened the house once we'd moved about a hundred meters from the burned section of the barrier. It was nearly morning by then, and after all the mana use and fighting, I was exhausted. At least in a high mana environment, I regenerated quickly.

Inside, I headed straight to the kitchen to put something together before we collapsed into bed. I'd just started arranging food when a loud thud echoed from the direction of the spell room. I rushed to the window. Two more Thaekori were slamming themselves against the house. I activated the protection. Lightning flashed, but once again, it barely affected them. I could feel the core draining a bit of their mana with every impact, but not nearly enough to stop them. They just kept battering the walls.

I wasn't worried about the house holding. I was worried the noise would attract more monsters. Mahya stepped up beside me and glanced out the window.

"I'll deal with them. Go back to what you were doing." I deactivated the protection to let her out, since it hadn't helped much anyway, and returned to the kitchen to finish making omelets with snake meat. Al followed her outside without a word. Rue looked after them, let out a mournful sigh, as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders, then padded after me into the kitchen and stared at the frying pan while drooling.

When Mahya and Al came back in, I reactivated the protections—shutters and lightning—just in case, then we ate a quick dinner and went upstairs to sleep. I kept my fingers crossed for a peaceful morning. The night was practically over.